Trial #1
Find additional cleaners for grease cleaning
The objective of the experiment was to find additional cleaners that would be effective in removing the contaminant from the given substrate material.
Precleaned and pre-weighed coupons were contaminated with the Braycote 601 grease using the container. The grease was then evenly distributed on the coupon using a swab. Three cleaners were selected from the lab’s database of chemistries and through previous testing trials. Five percent solutions were made in beakers and heated to 150 F on a hot plate. Three contaminated coupons per chemistry were cleaned using stir bar agitation for five minutes. The coupons were rinsed in tap water at 130 F for thirty seconds. Coupons were dried with a portable heater until dry (approximately 3 minutes). Finally the cleaned coupons were weighed and the percent contaminant removals were calculated.
SUBSTRATE MATERIAL: 17-4 Stainless steel
CONTAMINANTS: Braycote 601-perfluoropolyether grease
These chemistries showed slightly better results than the initial testing trials. The HTF-321 terpene had the most success removing the contaminant. Despite this increased efficiency, the chemistry only had ~8% removal. Table 1 contains the numerical results from this trial.
Table 1 Percent Removal
| Cleaner
|
HTF-321
|
DEOX 007
|
CT-1
|
| Cleaner #
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
|
|
5.08
|
3.94
|
5.06
|
|
|
9.77
|
4.27
|
10.62
|
|
|
8.15
|
|
2.09
|
| Average
|
7.66
|
4.10
|
5.92
|
| Std Dev
|
2.38
|
0.24
|
4.33
|
The semi-aqueous products did show to be slightly more effective in removing the contaminant from the stainless steel coupons. Again, it should be noted that the percentage of the grease removed was still not very high. The three cleaners from this trial and one from the first trial, Oakite InproClean 3800, will be used in conjunction with a 40 KHz ultrasonic cleaning tank. In addition to the four cleaners, tap water will also be tested
No relation